


Compatability

by Methoxyethane



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - My Hero Academia Fusion, Festivals, First Dates, First Kiss, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-23 01:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23403280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: Zuko hadn't thought they were compatible when they met, from their personalities to their quirks. He was wrong on pretty much every account.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 554





	Compatability

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Rose, who heard the word "zukka" from me and immediately shouted ideas of what she wanted to see in a fanfic at me. Which is a good thing. I love ideas. Thank you rooooose.

Zuko had been recommended for UA’s Hero Course without having to take the entrance exam, but for that matter so had his sister and about six other students just in his grade. 

It didn’t make him any more unique or special than most of the other students, and his quirk, while powerful, was honestly a little boring compared to some of the other students in his class alone. Zuko may have had firepower to spare, but Aang was so powerful he could literally sit on moving air whenever he wanted and Toph could see through her fucking FEET. Compared to some of them, Zuko found himself feeling rather… Run of the mill. 

It was a feeling he had grown used to over the years. Compared to his sister Azula he had only half a quirk, being unable to control lightning like his father and sister both could. He had inherited his mother’s firepower and absolutely nothing more. He had only gotten the UA recommendation on account of his father’s influence, and he knew that as well as anyone.

Zuko had to work twice as hard as anyone else to get half as far, and that was his lot in life. Which is why when the school paired him up with his Sokka from Class B for this project on impromptu teamwork with someone who’s quirk may not be compatible with your own, he was hardly surprised to find out his partner had the most useless quirk in possibly the entire school.

“It’s called Boomerang,” Sokka had proudly declared upon their introduction. “Anything I throw comes right back to me.”

Zuko remembered pausing. “And how do you use that to capture villains?”

“I knock them out with a boomerang,” Sokka had said cheerfully, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which, Zuko supposed, it kind of was.

And that had been how they met.

The project was a month long, and in the end everyone would have a little tournament to show off everyone’s new teamwork. For the first week or two Sokka and Zuko found themselves… challenged by the assignment.

As in, they hadn’t gotten along at all, and had no idea how to make their quirks work together either. That problem remained an issue throughout the project, but at least their personal issues had been resolved fairly quickly.

Well, quickly, but not necessarily easily. They had gotten into a huge fight over their apparent incompatibility, but afterwards when they were tired and worn out and Sokka’s clothes were singed and Zuko’s head was sufficiently bruised because they may or may not have gotten riled up enough to take the argument to physical violence, the smoke cleared and they had a real conversation.

Sokka apologized first. “Sorry, I know it’s my quirk that’s making this difficult. You’d have been way better off paired with someone like Aang or my sister, who both have cool elemental powers like you do.” He had scratched the back of his head, tired. “Compared to most of the school, I know I look like a loser.”

Zuko had felt particularly affected by that comment, relating to it on a personal level. Feeling outshined by a little sister was practically Zuko’s home base, emotionally speaking. “No, it’s because I’m not creative enough. You’ve got a really original quirk that can be used for subduing villains without hurting them too badly, compared to me I just look… Unoriginal.”

Sokka had patted him on the back. “Looks like we both have more work to do. Luckily we’re in this together, eh?”

That had been the moment they had started to bond as classmates. It had also, in retrospect, been the start of Zuko’s stupid massive crush on the other boy.

Zuko couldn’t help it, okay? Sokka was an attractive young man, and anyone who could stand up to that much literal fire and still have enough determination to wallop Zuko in the head with a boomerang was someone worth knowing in Zuko’s book. 

And as they got to know each other more, Zuko found out that Sokka was sweet and loving and something of a brilliant mastermind when it came to tactics, managing to use what seemed like a useless quirk in the most interesting and creative ways that made Zuko’s own use of brute force look almost infantile. He was just a hard person not like, even when his jokes were lame and his personality so large it could be a little overbearing. His good points were fast to outweigh his flaws.

Making his crush even worse was of course when Sokka started warming up to Zuko, in return. 

“What do you mean you’ve never been to McDonald’s?” Sokka had said with disbelief when the conversation had somehow turned that way one day. “That’s almost blasphemy. I’ve GOT to take you there. It’s official, we’re going after school.”

And so Sokka had. He’d forced a Big Mac and fries on Zuko and they’d split a milkshake, and Zuko had never gotten along so well with anyone before in his entire life. He didn’t know what to do with that information other than to just sort of… let it all happen. Just like all the new feelings he didn’t know what to do with but to let happen, either.

Yeah, Zuko fell fast and hard. But luckily for him, Sokka was apparently in the exact same stupid teenaged boat as him.

Zuko had been nervous about the entire situation at first, paranoid that this friendship was only a temporary alliance all the way up until after the project ended and Sokka still wandered over to his dorm to invite him to dinner. Then he only had to be paranoid he’d say something stupid to reveal his massive crush on the other boy and ruin their friendship.

Which he did. Not ruin their friendship - No, the part where Zuko said something stupid and revealed his feelings. THAT’S the part that really did happen.

They had wandered over to the beach one Sunday morning, a walk around the edge of the lake that he often used as a jogging route when he wanted to work out. He had invited Zuko to join him, which Zuko had gone relatively cheerfully because he woke up with the sun anyway and any excuse to spend time with Sokka was a good one by his books.

They walked around the border of the lake for two hours before getting bored and finding a spot to settle down, watching the ducks float past as they chatted idly. 

“Thanks for inviting me out here today, Sokka,” Zuko had eventually said, watching as Sokka picked out the smoothest flattest rocks he could find on the lake bed and skipping them across the water. And then he had put his foot all the way in his mouth and down his throat by mindlessly saying, “Aside from you I’ve never been on any kind of date before, and I never knew how much fun it could be.”

Zuko’s choice of words made them both pause. “Wait,” Zuko backpedalled awkwardly, “I didn’t mean - not like a DATE date, just like, out with friends, is all I meant. I didn’t. Well I mean I’ve never been on a romantic date either but that’s not what I…”

“It could be,” Sokka said quickly, interrupting Zuko’s fumbling. “A real date, I mean. It totally could be, if you wanted.”

And that was when the last rock Sokka had thrown across the lake skipped its way back, launching itself across the lake and into Sokka’s temple with a hard smack.

“What the f-“ Sokka whipped around to glare at the lake before turning back to Zuko. “I wasn’t meaning to use my quirk there, I swear I thought I threw that normally.”

Zuko couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of his throat. “Dating you is gonna be a lot of fun, isn’t it?” He said, a smile tugging at his lips.

Sokka had grinned back at him, smile shining with delight even with the new bruise on his forehead.

And that was how they started dating. That had been over a week ago now, but their studies had kept them both too busy to go on a proper Official Date since that point.

At least, until that weekend, when Sokka announced that there was going to be a festival in the town and the two of them should go together. Zuko had tentatively agreed, not having been to any kind of events like that science before his mother had left and not remembering quite what to expect from the entire endeavor.

Like he’d mentioned, he’d never been on a date before. Zuko therefore had no idea what to expect or how to act or even how to prepare himself for one, and spent most of the day before he and Sokka were scheduled to meet in a state of mild panic.

Crap, he still needed to pick out something to wear, didn’t he? It wouldn’t make sense to wear his school uniform on a Saturday night, and that meant Zuko had to make his own decisions about what he was going to wear. Considering it was an outdoor festival, he should wear something traditional, right? He was pretty sure he had seen people wandering around outside showing off their kimonos for festivals like this, right? Maybe he should wear a yukata? Yeah, that… that seemed right.

After at least five straight minutes of fussing with his hair in the mirror trying to decide if it was long enough to tie back like this he gave up, leaving it to fall as he usually did and leaving to go meet his date.

“Oh wow,” Sokka said when he saw Zuko in all his deep red and black splendor, eyes casting up and down Zuko’s nervous form. “You look…”

“...Overdressed?” Zuko offered when he noticed Sokka had chosen to wear cargo shorts and a tank top. 

“I was gonna say ‘amazing,’ actually.” Sokka said, rubbing at the back of his head. “If anything you make me look underdressed.” He nodded towards the sidewalk leading into town, gesturing that they should start heading towards the festival. “If you’re worried, you’ll fit in one we get to the party.”

“That’s what I was hoping for,” Zuko said as they made their way.

It was probably a fifteen minute walk into town, and when they got there the streets were all decorated to the tee. Full of lights and stalls filled with wares, crowds of people all wandering around. Some of them were indeed dressed in yukatas like Zuko was, although he noticed a vast majority of them seemed to be girls showing off their cutest kimonos. Well, crap. As long as he didn’t stand out too much he supposed it was fine.

“What should we do first?” Sokka asked, a few minutes into wandering the streets.

Zuko shrugged. “I don’t really know what there is to do around a festival like this,” he answered honestly. 

Sokka hummed. “Well, are you hungry? There are about a hundred different food stalls to try if you are.”

Zuko considered this. “I could eat,” he decided, earning a smile from Sokka as the other boy lead him toward the nearest sweet-smelling food vendor.

“What are you in the mood for? Something sweet, something salty, something spicy?”

Spicy foods were his favorite, but. “Sweet,” Zuko decided impulsively. “Let’s start with desert tonight.” 

“Just my kind of man,” Sokka laughed, and then failed to notice the way he made Zuko blush at the words.

They ended up with chocolate covered bananas, because Sokka’s initial suggestion of cotton candy passed the line of ‘sweet’ and bordered into ‘obscene.’ Zuko had been enjoying the snack just fine until Sokka had cracked a dirty joke about swallowing bananas and Zuko had promptly choked on his.

After that they had wandered around the streets looking at the stalls for a while. Most of them were filled with things to buy, from food to eat to nick-knacks to take home, nothing Zuko wanted or needed to buy but still interesting to look at nonetheless.

Sokka suggested next they try out some of the games of ‘chance’ the fair had to offer. Most of them required some kind of impossible feats of aim, timing, or both to succeed and actually win a prize, obviously to discourage personal losses on the part of the vendors who had to pay for such prizes.

The first stall they tried was a shooting gallery, a toy rifle and a line of cardboard ducks rattling in circles being the challenge they faced. Sokka had more luck than Zuko in aiming the janky gun, but neither of them were good enough to win any kind of prize. 

Next there was the goldfish scoop. They gave you a little paper fan with which you were supposed to catch goldfish swimming around, the downside being if you spent too much time with your little paddle in the water the paper would dissolve and break under the weight of the fish, even if you managed to get the timing right to actually scoop one up with it. 

That game Zuko actually managed to get a win on. The prize however was the goldfish you just managed to catch, which Zuko had not realized beforehand or he probably wouldn't have tried so hard to win at it. He didn’t have any use for a goldfish. He was pretty sure he wasn’t even allowed to keep one in the dorm, anyway.

He foisted the fish off on the first little kid he could find, a pigtailed girl wandering around with her older sister. It had honestly been an act in his own self interest, but the little girl beamed and the older sister thanked him, and when he turned around Sokka was grinning at him like he’d just done a good deed, so. All in all he was glad he’d done it, even if only for the look on Sokka’s face as they continued on.

Last was the dart game where you tried to pop balloons taped to a board. Zuko couldn’t even get one, the darts uselessly bouncing off the rubber targets and frustrating the firebender to no end. 

And then Sokka stepped up, cracked his neck, and popped three balloons in a row like it was as easy as breathing. The stall’s vendor glared at him, pointing to the sign on the side of the stall reading “No Quirks” like Sokka had just cheated.

“I didn’t use one, though!” Sokka protested. “Here, I’ll even show you what my quirk actually is!” He declared, throwing his last dart and showing the way it flew right back into his hand. “See? No aiming or vision quirks at all!”

The vendor begrudgingly agreed, but only allowed Sokka to choose from a series of lower-tiered prizes on the bottom shelf with the excuse that he couldn't prove he HADN’T cheated, either.

“I’ll take the necklace,” Sokka said, pointing at a choker with a small bright blue stone dangling off the center of it.

When the vendor handed it to him, Sokka instructed Zuko to turn around. “Here,” Sokka said, tying it around Zuko’s neck himself. 

“Oh good it fits,” he said when Zuko turned around again. “I was afraid for a second you might be too manly to pull it off, but it actually looks pretty good there!”

“It does?” Zuko asked, uncertainly. “I never really considered myself a… jewelry kind of guy.”

“You don’t have to wear it all the time,” Sokka shrugged. “I just wanted to see what it’d look like on you.”

Zuko probably would indeed not wear it all the time, but… For now, for tonight, for this date? It was perfect. “Thank you, Sokka.”

Sokka gave him another smile, a little awkward and embarrassed himself. “No problem,” he laughed casually. 

They wandered off away from the games, getting lost in the crowd again as they enjoyed the festival for all it was. And Zuko hadn’t expected himself to be able to relax like… at ALL tonight, assuming he’d be a nervous train wreck the entire date, but around Sokka it was surprisingly easy to just… Relax. Be himself. Himself didn’t have much to say but Sokka didn’t seem to mind, content to fill the silence with stories about his friends and classmates, sprinkled with bad jokes that brought a little twitch of a smile to Zuko’s lips.

They had already been there for a couple of hours, time seeming to fly by. Probably since Zuko was actually having fun for once in his rotten life, honestly enjoying himself to spite his nerves.

“What,” a familiar voice said from behind them, “Is that  _ smell _ ? It positively REEKS of meat and sarcasm around here all of a sudden.”

They both whipped around, Toph standing behind them and holding a candied apple in one hand. 

“Toph!” Sokka exclaimed, surprised and pleased to see his friend. “I didn’t expect to see you here. Are you here by yourself?”

“I am now,” she said, waving her candied apple in the air while she talked. “I came here with Aang and Katara but they ditched me to go to the haunted house.”

“You didn’t wanna join them?” Zuko asked.

She waved a hand in front of her face. “People dressed like ghouls don’t really do much for me. Also I’m immune to jump scares.” Which made sense, considering she always knew where everyone was standing just from feeling their movements through the ground. And was blind. 

“What about you two?” She asked next. “I didn’t expect to run into the two of you together. Working on your teamwork by spending a little alone time with each other?”

“Uhhh,” Sokka and Zuko exchanged glances. “Not really? We’re kind of here on a. You know. Like a date,” Sokka said awkwardly. 

“PFFFFFTTTTTT,” Toph laughed, spitting out the bite of apple she had just taken. “You two, on a date? That’s even funnier than I could have hoped for!”

“What’s so funny about it,” Zuko spat, embarrassed not to be seen with Sokka but by the intensity of her amusement at the prospect of them dating.

“Because you’re both losers who deserve each other,” she grinned. “I can’t believe it, I should have heard this coming a mile away. You got me, Sock-boy! Zuko is the last person on the planet I thought you’d have a chance with!”

“What, like he’s that much better than me?”

“No, like I can’t imagine Zuko dating ANYONE. But I gotta say, if he’s gonna swing for your team he picked a fine batter to pitch for.” She paused. “Or catch for,” she grinned, laughing at her own bad joke.

“Okay, I think that’s enough,” Sokka said, visibly blushing. “Why don’t you go find Aang and my sister again, so we can continue on our date without a gremlin hassling us.”

Toph scoffed. “Second pair of lovebirds that’s ditched me just tonight. Later assholes, have fun jerking each other off.”

“Bye, Toph,” Zuko said awkwardly. “Catch up with you in class later.”

“‘Night, guys.” She waved her hand dismissively as she turned around. “Don’t do anything I  _ would _ do,” she said as she wandered off to disappear into the crowd. 

“Well,” Sokka said as she left. “At least now I don’t have to worry about telling Katara I asked you out. Just what her reaction’s gonna be.”

Yeah, that’s as fair. Katara wasn’t exactly Zuko’s biggest fan, now that he thought about it. “Think it’ll be bad?”

“I think she’ll accuse me of thinking with my dick,” Sokka said with a laugh. “But she doesn’t know you as well as I do, even if she IS actually in Class A with you. She’ll come around fast once I explain that you’re secretly awesome.”

Secretly awesome? What a strange compliment that was. “Only secretly?”

Sokka laughed. “Secretly cute, too.”

That made Zuko blush again, but he brushed it off and pretended he wasn’t affected by the comment. “Let’s… go get something to eat,” Zuko said, fumbling. “I haven’t had anything besides that banana all day.”

Sokka agreed. They found a yakisoba stand and a bench, sitting down to eat while the sun finished setting around them.

“Shoot,” Sokka said, a bit of stray noodle stuck to his cheek cutely. “I didn’t realize it was so late, we’re gonna miss the fireworks at this rate.”

“Were you excited to see them?” Zuko asked, staring a little as Sokka swiped the stray noodle bit away with his tongue.

“Heck yeah, I love fireworks!” Sokka said. “Besides, they’re a festival tradition.”

“Then we should go find somewhere to watch them,” Zuko said firmly, finishing the last of his yakisoba. Sokka finished his and they both stood up, leaving to find a good spot to watch the fireworks from.

The problem was there were a ton of buildings around, and the spaces there weren't buildings were covered in trees instead. There were only a few spots where you could clearly see the sky, and all of them were crowded with people already watching as the fireworks started to pop off in the sky.

“Aww man,” Sokka complained. “We can’t see shit like this.”

Zuko looked at his disappointed face, biting his lip a little as an idea occurred to him. Was it a good idea, probably not, but if it could bring a smile to Sokka’s face it could be worth it.

“Hey,” he said, grabbing Sokka’s hand. “Follow me for a minute.” 

He dragged Sokka off into where the trees grew thickest, finding a small space out of sight in the copse of trees where it would be safe to pull this off. Probably.

He let go of Sokka’s hand, not because he wanted to but because he had to. Zuko took a deep breath and put his hands together, opening them up again to allow a series of bright orange sparks to flower off in his open palms.

“Oh shit,” Sokka exclaimed quietly, leaning in to get a closer look at the miniature fireworks display going off in Zuko’s hands. “It never occurred to me your quirk could do something like this! Wow, you make fire look so… pretty.”

Zuko flushed a little at the praise. It made him want to show off more, do the kind of little tricks he hadn’t tried to practice since he used to practice his quirk with his mother as a child. He wasn’t confident he still knew how to do them, but…

“Um, step back a little,” Zuko said.

Sokka obeyed with a curious look on his face, watching as Zuko started to toss the sparks into the air, not high enough to reach the trees but high enough to show off a little. He allowed the sparks to grow into small fireballs, still tiny enough not to be any danger to the trees but large enough to show off the orange of the flames.

A few small fireballs for practice before he started changing up the colors, changing the flames first into a simple hotter blue. Sokka’s eyes widened and Zuko smiled, and the flames turned into greens and reds and even purples in his hands, tossing them up into the air to fizzle out like the fireworks coloring the sky above them.

Sokka’s face glowed, both from the fire and with the smile spread across it.

Zuko only did it for a minute or two, afraid if he used his quirk too long someone would see them and he’d get in trouble for using his powers outside of school. Sokka apparently had no such reservations, because he got this look on his face like he had just gotten some smart idea, and the next thing he said was, “Hey, toss me one more.”

Zuko blinked. “You want me to throw fire at you?”

Sokka’s mouth opened, then closed again. “My bad, I didn’t mean at me.” He scooted around to stand next to Zuko, picking a rock up off the ground. “Throw one more fireball over between those two trees, just a little one.”

Curiously Zuko obeyed, figuring even if he hit a tree it wouldn’t do much more than leave a small scorch mark.

At the same time he threw the fire, Sokka threw the rock. It soared into the path of the fireball and caught up, and then Zuko watched in wonder as Sokka activated his quirk. The fireball got caught in the rock’s orbit as it sailed into the air, being pulled alongside it in a wide arc, the now flaming stone pulled back towards Sokka, who had enough control over the trajectory of the stone returning to him to fly the firey rock in a tight spiral circling around them until the fire went out and the rock hit Sokka’s waiting palm.

“Holy shit,” it was Zuko’s turn to say. “Did you just control my fire?”

“A little bit!” Sokka’s voice was loud with excitement. “I almost can’t believe it, our quirks are actually compatible after all!”

Over three weeks of trying, and THIS was how they figured out how to work together. It was almost pathetic, but mostly Zuko couldn’t help but think it was funny at this point.  _ Compatible _ .

“We’ll have to practice more, and we don’t have a lot of time before the exhibition matches.” Zuko said reasonably.

Sokka just grinned. “Trust me, that’s plenty of time to come up with a plan of attack. We’re gonna blow everyone away.”

Zuko gave a small smile back, and decided that even if they didn’t manage to impress anyone in the whole school he wouldn’t care. He already had Sokka, and that was enough,

The fireworks were reaching a climax above their heads, and even through the trees Sokka’s face was lighted with color. He was beautiful, or handsome, or whatever word one used to describe the face of the person who made one’s heart seize in their chest and pulse flutter with excitement was, and Zuko found himself unconsciously stepping forward just to that much closer to him.

Sokka stepped forward too, until they were deep into each other’s personal space. Sokka’s hand found his, winding their fingers together, and Zuko felt his eyes flutter shut before he made the decision to do so.

Sokka’s lips found his, but Zuko was the one whose hand found Sokka’s waist to draw them closer together and deepen the kiss. It was the first real kiss of Zuko’s life, and from how long they spent with their lips connected Zuko could easily vouch that kissing really did live up to all the hype.

When they pulled away the fireworks had ended, but Sokka’s smile lit up the dark.


End file.
